Leaving Luxor
We are hanging out in a really nice hotel in Luxor. I could only wish we had a hotel like this in Cairo! At any rate, we're only renting a room for the day- so dirty! Actually we got kicked off our boat this morning and had more than 6 hours to kill. We hit the Valley of the Kings and Queens this morning, and Karnak in the afternoon as a grand finale. Since Al hasn't been feeling so hot we took this as the best option for us. Thankfully he's feeling a lot better, but regardless it's wonderful to have a quiet place to hang out and take a shower before the next overnight train trip back to Cairo.
The past few days have been- well, incredible. I find myself writing postcards, and am abusing the words 'fantastic' 'marvelous' 'beautiful'- it really doesn't capture the beauty or the majesty of what we've seen lately. This trip really is a dream come true. I can't express how it feels to see ALL THIS in person- after having seen pictures our entire lives. The art and the statues are larger than life, and so incredibly powerful and beautiful.
We've been inundated with Isis, Osiris, Anubis, Nepthys, Sekhmet, Sobek, Apophis and Nuit- of course. There are so many others, it would take pages to fill. I'm just amazed at how much detail has survived in some of the temples and tombs. I'm saddened at the deliberate destruction in others, but that's sort of par for the course with history. We got some fabulous shots of Min for uncleskull! It should also go without saying that we're capturing as many pictures of Nut as possible for both ourselves and gfaulk.
It's tempting to roll off the names of the places we've seen in the past few days- Philae Temple, Kom Ombo, Edfu, Luxor, Valley of the Kings & Queens, Karnak. But the names really don't say much unless you've been there.
The past few days we've been travelling in style. We were on a 5 star cruise, sailing on the Nile. We stopped for tombs & temples, and had many hours to relax and watch the scenery roll by from the upper deck. It was pretty cush. My only complaint was the Lucy & Desi style twin beds! There was a pool up on top, so I could swim and watch the desert and palm trees rolling by. We watched fishermen, and children playing in the Nile next to water buffalo. There were plenty of apartment buildings and mosques. Listening to the muezzin has been really beautiful. The rest of the tourists seem to be mainly Swiss or German, with a few Spanish speakers and Russians thrown in for good measure. We were definitely in the minority, but that wasn't a problem- most of the crew assumed we were French or German.
Our guide Ahmed travelled with us on the boat and he was really cool. He seemed impressed that we knew *any* Egyptian history, which is really telling. I guess the average American doesn't know any, which isn't surprising I guess. He took pains to tell us more interesting stories and to take back routes since he knew we were truly honestly interested in what we were seeing. It was amazing to step through the actual ruins on Elephantine island with no one else around. There were potsherds at every step, and layers and layers of history that we could reach out and touch. I like being able to see mud bricks that have lasted 4000 years, or colors in a painting made 2000+ years ago. It's really fascinating.
I could have spent hours or days going back to the Valley of the Kings, but sadly we just don't have time for that. We were able to visit the tombs of Ramses I, III & IV. The last had the most stunning Nut on the ceiling, with the day & night and calendar mural- some of you will know which one I'm referring to. It was unreal.
At any rate, tonight we head back on the night train. We spend all day tomorrow in Cairo hitting places like the Cairo Museum, which I'm really looking forward to. We're also going to see some mosques, especially the one from Muhammed Ali which should be great- plus some other stuff I cannot even remember right now. After that we're heading into the desert to spend the night with the Bedouins and our last day we're seeing a British castle and something else- ha I should have brought our itinerary with us.
This has been a really good opportunity to read a ton of books and write in my "manual" journal. I'm not at all sorry about that, even though I've missed the intarwebs. I think I'd write even more with a keyboard, as that's what my hands are used to. C'est la vie. I am both rested and happy- and still excited to see what's in store for us during the rest of our trip! It's hard to believe we left about a week ago. This has been one jam packed week full of amazing. I think of all the regular work weeks that just sort of haze by, and am thankful for this time. I sat on the deck of the boat and fully appreciated that this is the vacation I have worked and waited for over the past year- and I'm enjoying every minute of it!